From: Herald Sun

HOME owners in Melbourne's blue-chip suburbs are slashing hundreds of thousands of dollars off their property prices to get a sale.

The discounts would buy a house in some suburbs.

Property searches reveal the price on one house in Albert Park has dropped $500,000 -- enough to buy a new, four-bedroom home in Point Cook.

RP Data research shows vendors in Toorak are cutting their price tags by 9.5 per cent, while Hawthorn home owners are dropping their price by 8.7 per cent.

Hocking Stuart chief executive Nigel O'Neil said a slowdown in the property market hit harder in luxury suburbs.

"In a softening of the market, in the outer suburbs we are talking about five or 10 thousand dollars," he said. "At the top end of the market that can be hundreds of thousands of dollars."

Properties are advertised with "reduced price" slogans to try to entice buyers back to the market.

Agents told the Herald Sun some vendors were reluctantly slashing prices to accommodate the slowing property market.

Real Estate Institute of Victoria communications manager Robert Larocca said many vendors were setting their prices based on 20 per cent increases between 2009 and 2010.

"But prices have come back a bit since then. This means that with the exception of a few suburbs, sellers are finding that they have to scale back their expectations a bit," he said.